Since 2020 the University of Bologna has signed several national transformative agreements as part of the negotiation process coordinated by the CARE-CRUI group.

Transformative agreements cover both the fees for accessing the electronic journals subscribed by the University of Bologna and the article processing charges for the publication (APCs), under a Creative Commons licence (generally CC BY), at no additional cost to the authors.

What are the transformative agreements to which the University of Bologna has adhered?

Since 2020 the University of Bologna has adhered to several transformative agreements signed by the CRUI with leading international publishers. Here is a list of the FAQs relating to each agreement:

  1. American Chemical Society
  2. Association for Computing Machinery
  3. BMJ
  4. Cambridge University Press
  5. De Gruyter
  6. Elsevier
  7. Emerald
  8. IEEE
  9. Institute of Physics
  10. Lippincott
  11. Royal Society of Chemistry
  12. Springer
  13. Wiley

Is it mandatory for authors to publish Open Access?

No. Authors are free to decide whether or not to publish Open Access.

Which authors may be eligible?

Only corresponding authors officially affiliated with the University of Bologna on the date the article is accepted are eligible, including academics with fixed-term contracts such as PhD students, research fellows, assistant professors, specialisation school students, etc.

In such cases, authors must submit their contributions via their institutional email address (i.e.: name.surname@unibo.it or name.surname@studio.unibo.it).

In the event that the article has more than one corresponding author, for example an author from the University of Bologna and one from a different university, the verification of the affiliation, and therefore the attribution of the article to the university that signed the agreement, will be made on the author who submitted the article.

Which are the eligible journals?

To find each publisher's "eligible" journals, check the FAQs dedicated to each agreement or the page displaying all the lists.

Is the publication of monographs covered? 

No. Transformative Agreements don't cover the Open Access publication of chapters, volumes or monographs. 

Do transformative agreements provide a Green Open Access clause for articles whose publishing costs are not covered by the agreement?

Yes. Check the Green Open Access clauses described in the FAQs dedicated to each agreement.

Who shall I contact to get more information about the transformative agreements?

For general questions, please write to the (a branch of the University of Bologna’s Cultural Heritage Division). For specific questions about each agreement, please refer to the dedicated emails of the Approval Manager.

  1. American Chemical Society:
  2. Association for Computing Machinery:
  3. BMJ:
  4. Cambridge University Press: 
  5. De Gruyter:
  6. Elsevier:
  7. Emerald:
  8. IEEE: 
  9. Institute of Physics:
  10. Lippincott:
  11. Royal Society of Chemistry: 
  12. Springer:
  13. Wiley:

Where do I find information of general interest on transformative agreements?

  • Guidance on the Implementation of Plan S: the three paths to Plan S compliance;
  • ESAC-Initiative: webpage dedicated to the transformative agreements;
  • ESAC Transformative Agreement Registry: in the international registry where transformative agreements are published, under "Italy" (Country) and "CRUI-CARE" (Organization) entries, you can consult the main characteristics and the text of the agreements signed by the CRUI on behalf of the Italian universities and research institutions, for the part not regulated by the confidentiality clause.